


If Through My Cracked and Dusty Dime Store Lips

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Archie Comics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-19
Updated: 2006-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1624742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      Title stolen from Empty by Ray Lamontagne.  Sections titles stolen from the Ditty Bops, the Barenaked Ladies and Ray again.  Thanks to sage for the beta read!  <p>Written for dariclone</p>
    </blockquote>





	If Through My Cracked and Dusty Dime Store Lips

**Author's Note:**

> Title stolen from Empty by Ray Lamontagne. Sections titles stolen from the Ditty Bops, the Barenaked Ladies and Ray again. Thanks to sage for the beta read! 
> 
> Written for dariclone

 

 

**The rules were meant to bend and change**

The summer they were thirteen-years-old Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge spent all of their free time together, mostly at Veronica's house, mostly by the swimming pool. One day, while Betty was prattling on, as usual, about Archie Andrews (who Veronica thought was kind of goofy looking) she interrupted herself mid-sentence and asked Veronica "Have you ever kissed a boy?"

Veronica replied in the negative, reiterating an oft-made point that boys were stupid and should probably have rocks thrown at them. Betty wondered about what would be like to kiss a boy and Veronica suggested they go upstairs and practice.

"What do you mean?" Betty, having never spent any time at an all-girls camp, asked.

"We can practice kissing on each other. The girls at camp do it all the time." It took Veronica a little more effort than that, but eventually she and Betty were sitting cross-legged opposite each other on Veronica's bed. "Here, close your eyes Betty, I'll go first."

When they got tired of practicing, Betty lay her head on Veronica's thighs, who absently started playing with wheat blonde hair, luxuriating in the memory of Betty's lips on hers. "That was awesome! It's going to be so cool to do this with Archie!"

Hiding her face, Veronica vowed to herself that Betty would never find out, because Veronica Lodge was going to make Archie hers.

 

 

**kiss me with that country mouth so plain**

The summer before senior year, the boys were carted off to a summer football camp because Coach Clayton watched _Remember the Titans_ a few too many times. Betty baked Archie some muffins to take on the bus, and Veronica was petulant because she wanted everyone to spend the same two weeks at the Lodge's summer house. Her petulance spoiled Archie's mood and he treated Betty and her muffins with uncharacteristic brusqueness. She was hurt and Veronica, smelling blood in the water, derided her loudly and publicly. Archie overheard and called Veronica a series of not-nice names, his pique driven by an immediate sense of guilt towards Betty, annoyance with Veronica's brattiness and a general sense of put-uponness at having to sacrifice a month of his time to a sport he wasn't sure he even liked anymore.

Midge saw all this take place over Moose's shoulder as he blubbered away about how much he'd miss her. After the bus pulled away and Betty and Veronica calmed down a little, she suggested that the girls go to Veronica's on their own--that maybe a little time away from Riverdale would do them all a little good. Veronica scoffed at the idea and Betty balked, but once Midge brought in Big Ethel and her indomitable will, both were forced to acquiesce.

For the first few days things unfolded exactly as expected. Veronica lorded her wealth over Betty, implying that by it's very being it chained Archie to her. She belittled Betty's cooking and constantly picked on her, zoning in on all the chinks in Betty's armor that she had revealed in moments of friendship, increasingly far between.

One afternoon when Midge and Ethel had gone into town to pick up supplies, Veronica made yet another crack about the size of Betty's ass and how it must've been due to Betty spending so many Friday nights alone with her baking. Betty resorted to the only real way to silence Veronica that she knew.

The blow landed open-handed across Veronica's face with enough force to turn her head, leaving the flaming red imprint of Betty's right hand emblazoned across Veronica's cheek. The crack of flesh against flesh was loudest sound either girl has ever heard. Tears welled in Veronica's eyes but she resolutely **refused** to cry. Silence filled the room for precisely twenty-eight seconds. Veronica wheeled back to return the blow but Betty was always faster, always stronger, and Veronica's hand stopped inches from Betty's sun-browned skin.

Faces inches apart, their eyes demanded a hundred answers from each other, blazing with anger, betrayal, guilt, frustration. dull with bewilderment; shining with unshed tears and an understanding that something between them has changed irrevocably, that their lifelong, but always fragile friendship was gone.

Betty opened her mouth to apologize, because Betty was always the nice one, events notwithstanding. Veronica saw this coming and, twisting her hand around Betty's arm and yanking her forward, pushed her own body forward so their mouths collided. It wasn't tender, this first kiss. It was a teeth-knocking, lip-biting, tongues-dueling, power struggle of an affair. Betty tasted blood in her mouth, unsure if it was Veronica's from the slap or her own from when Veronica bit into her lower lip, sucking it into her own mouth like yesterday's sushi. Veronica popped the button from Betty's beach shorts when she forced her hand between her legs. Betty left livid purple bite marks on Veronica's pale and perfect breasts when she came.

Afterward Betty struggled to hold her shorts up and maintain a semblance of dignity as she said, red-faced and panting, "I'm sorry I slapped you."

Veronica smiled, in a predatory and triumphant way that only Veronica could smile. She said, "I'm not," and walked out of the room.

 

 

**your name is the hair shirt i wear**

When her father dies Veronica returns to Riverdale for the first time in fifteen years. She's once divorced, the result of an ill-advised marriage in her early twenties to a suave but empty and pretentious Frenchman name Etienne.

Weeks before her return to Riverdale, she split with her girlfriend of eight years; and although there will be no legal procedure to follow, she's found the experience financially and emotionally ten times harder. She left Lucy in the Brooklyn brownstone purchased with her money, furnished with her belongings, and counted herself lucky.

At the funeral, Veronica finds that half the people she went to high school with are still residents of Riverdale, and she wonders how and why they ever left. Jughead is still there, heavy with years of too many burgers. She remembers that he has built the Chocklit Shoppe into a moderately successful SoCal franchise with seed capital borrowed from her father. She remembers the conversation Hiram and she had about it, where he expressed a level of surprise at Jughead's business acumen that many would have considered unflattering. Sly, sycophantic Reggie went to law school at UCLA and returned to Riverdale where he kiss-assed his way into her father's affairs and was kept loyal by what she will learn was an extortionate retainer. She knows from her father that he is viciously competent in protecting the Lodge interests, but at the airport he copped a feel and she's already decided to fire him. He'll threaten a suit, she'll threaten him with charges.

Midge and Moose are also here. She only has a chance to talk briefly with them but Dilton has kept her up to speed. Moose still limps because of the knee he blew out in his senior year at USC. Midge is fat and happy with child number three. Moose threatens to name it after Peyton Manning and when Midge slaps him on the arm, Veronica is filled with brief, white-hot jealousy.

At the service she sees Betty near the back with a sunset-haired little girl. The air is sucked out of Veronica's lungs. She loses her place in the eulogy and stammers to a close. They are not at the reception. No one mentions Archie and she's perfectly okay with that.

In the months following Veronica spends most of her time locked in her father's office going through his financial holdings and gradually it dawns on her that it would be impossible for her to extricate his money from Riverdale without doing severe damage to the local economy. Companies he owned outright employ hundreds of townspeople; he had a controlling interest in two local banks and was personally invested in nearly have the local businesses that weren't national chains. The Lodge Foundation is the major charitable donor to every community group in the town, the art gallery (such as it is, she thinks to herself), the local history museum, and the football complex at Riverdale High is called Lodge Field for a reason. And although she tries hard to resist being sucked back into Riverdale Veronica soon finds herself on half a dozen different boards and committees, including, somehow, the school board, which she was positive you had to run for before you could get on it.

The second time Veronica sees Betty since her return is at a school board meeting. The meeting is to discuss what to name the newly renovated school library, which her father paid for. The board chair and most of the trustees will want to name it after her father. A vocal contingent of townspeople, teachers, former and current Riverdale High students and Jughead are pushing to have it named after Principal Weatherbee, recently deceased. Betty makes an eloquent speech for her cause, and Veronica learns she teaches biology and coaches the girls basketball team. The board tries to vote against her, but Veronica plays the Lodge card, and the library will henceforth be known as the Waldo W. Weatherbee Memorial Library. Veronica does not have the guts to ask anyone what the W stands for. As she stares off into space Betty catches her eye and gives her a tentative smile. Veronica looks away.

One day, six months after she returns, Jughead insists she come to the Chocklit Shoppe to eat dinner with him and Moose. He picks a good night for it: Veronica's mother is in Provence for the winter, the staff have the night off and Veronica realizes she likes spending time with Jughead. He has a wry humour and surprising cleverness about him. The Chocklit Shoppe looks exactly like it did in high school, when she and the gang spent all their time there. It makes Veronica feel a little weird being there again. Jughead spends the entire evening talking shop, while Moose waxes nostalgic about high school.

As they're tucking into dessert, Veronica sees Betty and her daughter come in. Betty sees her as well and offers the same tentative smile she gave Veronica at the board meeting. This time Veronica does not look away, but neither does she return the smile. Dinner comes to a hasty conclusion at her impetus, and after thanking the boys for a nice evening, Veronica slips out the door while Betty isn't looking.

Walking to her car Veronica hears a familiar voice call out "Ronnie!" behind her. She turns and Betty is there, willing Veronica not to reject her. Betty thanks Veronica for backing her cause. Veronica deflects her gratitude by saying, in truth, her father wouldn't have wanted yet another thing named after him. Betty says thanks nonetheless and asks if she won't join her and Maya for a milkshake or something. Veronica tells her Maya's a pretty name.

Then she says,

"Not yet."

Betty does not force herself into Veronica's life, she's still too nice and too smart for that. She does, however, make her presence known often. Veronica sees her sometimes at the grocery store, at meetings around town, in the Chocklit Shoppe. Betty seems to understand what "Not yet" meant and doesn't force the issue, but neither does she roll over and give up. Veronica alternates between gratitude and annoyance for this.

One afternoon, Maya and two other girls show up on her doorstep with a woman Veronica doesn't recognize. They're selling Girl Guide cookies. Maya asks if it's true that Veronica and her mother used to be friends. Veronica assures her it is and tells her that once upon a time she and her mother were the very best of friends. Maya doesn't believe her until Veronica buys all of the cookies and spends the afternoon telling stories of Betty as a child and teenager. Veronica finds Maya charming, with all of Betty's niceness and Archie's gregariousness, and it stings only a little to look at to the girl and tell her of their youth. At six o'clock Betty appears at the door to retrieve her errant daughter, annoyed that neither of them thought to call her, causing her to drive all the way to the other side of town to pick Maya up, only to be told she was at Veronica's, a mere six blocks away. Veronica insists they stay for dinner.

 

 

 

 

**be here now**

When Maya is twelve her mother will tell her that she is getting married. For a brief second Maya will worry about what Aunt Ronnie is going to do when she and her mother move away. Then she realizes that her mother means she's going to marry Aunt Ronnie. Maya knows all about homosexuals, she learned about them in school just last year. Maya spends another second mulling this over before informing her mother she's too old to be the flower girl.

The End.

 


End file.
